In recent years, in-ear headphones have gained popularity. This increase in popularity may be partly due to the generally smaller, lighter, and less obtrusive geometry offered by in-ear headphones compared to on-ear and over-ear headphones. Also, some people may prefer the sound generated by in-ear headphones compared to other types of headphones.
Although in-ear headphones offer advantages over other types of headphones, there are also some disadvantages associated with in-ear headphones. Among these disadvantages is the difficulty of designing in-ear headphones that fit properly in the ears of most or all people. The size and shape of each different person's inner and outer ears is unique. In fact, the size and shape of one of a person's ears may be different from the size and/or shape of that same person's other ear.
Some manufacturers of in-ear headphones have addressed the variability in size and shape of different peoples' ears by selling in-ear headphones with multiple interchangeable soft eartips of different sizes. FIG. 1 is a simplified side view of this type of conventional in-ear headphone 100. The in-ear headphone 100 includes a housing 110, a rigid nozzle 120 coupled to the housing, and a soft eartip 130 removably coupled to the rigid nozzle 120.
With the soft eartip 130 coupled to the rigid nozzle 120, the eartip 130 and part of the rigid nozzle 120 may be inserted into the ear canal of the user's ear. The soft eartip 130 may provide some conformity to different shapes of ears. Also, users of this kind of in-ear headphone 100 can try on the headphone 100 with the various different soft eartips 130 until the most comfortable soft eartip 130 is identified.